1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a device capable of temporarily adjusting the length of a bat by using an adjustable ring.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Every baseball and softball player understands the basic rule that a bat's swing speed greatly determines a batter's effectiveness. The faster the swing, the more likely a batter is to make contact with a given pitch. Baseball and softball players also inherently understand that the bat's swing speed is a function of not only how hard the batter swings, but of the bat's length and mass.
Ideally, every player and coach would have access to the perfect bat for any given batting situation. When a pitcher was not throwing particularly fast and a batter did not need a high swing speed, a longer and heavier bat would be used. When the opposite was true, that is when the pitcher threw very fast, or even just when a batter fell behind in the strike count and higher bat swing speed was desired, a shorter and/or lighter bat would be selected. While professional baseball and softball players may find it practical to have many bats for any given situation, the cost is not efficient for other, more recreational settings.
Instead, most players and their teams have only a handful of bats to suit all of their varied needs. This leads to the common, and often futile admonition from coaches and teammates for a batter to choke-up. This well understood, but often unheeded instruction is a directive for the batter to move his hands up from the bottom of the bat's handle. If done, this shortens the effective bat length, thereby automatically creating a higher bat swing speed with the batters natural swing. Typically, even if this instruction is followed for the first pitch, the batter may well return on subsequent pitches to the more natural position of having their hands rest at the end of the handle.
One possible solution to this problem is to create an artificial handle end at a desired point on the handle with wound tape, or other similar material. This, however, is not an ideal solution. Since the bat will be used by players of varying physical size, the different players will want and need different lengths to optimize the bat's use. This will require constant winding and unwinding a tape. Since the tape is typically very thin and the desired artificial handle end must have considerable thickness before it becomes really effective. Additionally, the tape's adhesive will build up on the handle, creating an essentially unworkable solution.
Many patented devices exist for helping batter's improve their performance. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,653,440, 5,501,450 and 4,898,384 each teach the addition of extra mass to a baseball bat to aid in the development of a proper swing. However, the need to help batters choke-up has remained unaddressed.